By Ankit Panda
Chinese hackers broke into U.S. think tanks to access information about U.S. plans for Iraq.
On Tuesday, reports emerged that U.S. Middle East experts at major U.S. think tanks had been hacked by a Chinese cyperespionage group with links to the Chinese government. The hacker group, known as “DEEP PANDA” by security researchers, left few clues as to why specifically it targeted these U.S. targets, but it is likely that the incident could overshadow the looming U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Cyber issues are coming to the fore in U.S.-China relations and the U.S. government is growing increasingly wary of government-sponsored cyberespionage originating from China.
According to the Washington Post’s report on the incident, the “latest breach follows a pattern identified by experts of Chinese cyberspies targeting major Washington institutions, including think tanks and law firms.” Following this breach, we are left to speculate on the motive. Security researcher Dmitri Alperovitch, cited by the Post notes that his firm noticed a “radical” change in DEEP PANDA’s activity on June 18, “the same day witnesses reported that Sunni extremists seized Iraq’s largest oil refinery.” Although Alperovitch did not disclose specifically which experts or think tanks were affected, the motive prima facie appears to be interest in learning what U.S. experts know about the ongoing situation in Iraq. The hackers may have been attempting to gain access to to non-public information that these experts were privy to.
Additionally, for these hackers, targeting a think tank might make more sense than targeting the U.S. government because the latter would be more sensitive to noticing a breach. As the Post notes, China’s risk exposure in Iraq is relatively large. Chinese state-owned enterprises and private investors have around $14.5 billion invested in Iraq. Furthermore, 8 percent of all Chinese crude oil imports originate in Iraqi oil fields. Given this, China has significant motive to navigate the ongoing crisis in Iraq with care.
Read the full story at The Diplomat